


Fredbear's

by RobbyA



Category: Cthulhu Mythos - Fandom, Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Lovecraftian, Lovecraftian Monster(s), Minor William Afton | Dave Miller/Henry Emily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:48:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23989144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobbyA/pseuds/RobbyA
Summary: Alternate take on the series.
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Working for Fazbear Entertainment was a thankless endeavor. A franchise dedicated to making the most in terms of children's entertainment. I remember when the establishment was struggling and was practically dead on arrival. I was assigned to work for a branch of the company called Fredbear's Family Diner, a family-oriented establishment. Business was down in comparison to their rivals and reviews further sunk the chances of parents taking their rowdy children to any of their branches.

But what kept it afloat was two men: Henry and one William Afton. Afton came off as being a crude replication of a man. He was of a sickly thin stature with his purple business suit barely clinging onto his body. His eyes were sunken in and possessed a yellow hue. When I somehow got wrapped up in his business, he shook my hand. He had the most skeletal, papery skin around his fingers. He smiled at me, but his smile was disconcerting as well. It was artificially made like a mask and seemingly rubbery in texture. His low husky voice did little to match up with his lips' movement.

"It is a pleasure to see that you have decided to join our goal."

I mustered up as much of a smile that I could, but I could not deny that I felt intimidated already. At least his business partner was more affable. He was leagues above Mr. Afton in terms of physical appearance. He had a healthy skin color, a peachy one, and a brown beard. He was already thinning on the top of his head that he often hid away with a top hat. He wore a blue business uniform and was more on the plump side of the spectrum then Afton could attest to.

"We are somewhat falling short of quality, I admit to that," Henry confesses, "but I will give it my best to make sure you do not regret working for us."

Henry showed me the ropes of the establishment while Afton tended to seclude himself in his room for the remainder of the day. Sometimes he would disappear in the middle of conversing with me, Henry, or any of his employees. Each time, he trudged to his office and slammed the door loudly as if not wanting anyone to become aware of what he was doing in secret. Sometimes I managed to catch a glimpse of some glowing, luminescent orbs floating without direction in his office before he slammed the door shut.

Before long, Henry introduced me to early iterations of the franchise's animatronics. Fredbear and Spring Bonnie to be exact. Long before the likes of Freddy Fazbear, Chica, Bonnie, and Foxy the Pirate, there were two animatronics. These animatronics were oddly high-tech for their time with the Spring Bonnie animatronic in particular also doubling as a suit. Despite them being technological marvels, they lacked a certain flair. They were devoid of personality or charm. Children were less likely to fawn over them as frankly they came off as being creepy robots. Naturally, they were, but some children could at least look past that issue and accept them as their friends. Henry noticed me looking at the two animatronics one early morning, understanding what I was thinking without me having to tell him.

"I know it isn't much, but kids will love them if you are willing to give them a chance."

A ludicrous proposal, but I did try to become more invested with the animatronics. But their hollow eyes and endoskeletons clouded any good feelings I may have had for the robots. I did feel somewhat bad for Henry, but I would not lie to myself that there was inherently nothing appealing about Fredbear or Spring Bonnie. The franchise was now verging on full scale closure and if it did not shape up, the business would be shut down and the employees would be without a job. Henry and Afton had to do something. Fast.

But my god if it did not come with a cost.

Time passed and at the beginning of the month, a child went missing. The authorities were notified of the disappearance and during our regular scheduling, they stormed the diner and went to speak with the owners. Henry was charitable as always and spoke calmly with the police. According to their discussion, it was an 8-year-old, porky boy who disappeared during the open hours of the establishment being seen with Spring Bonnie. I stood by listening to the conversation. At the corner of my eye, I caught Afton edging further away from the authorities and this time opening a door to the backroom of the diner and slamming it behind him.

An utter nightmare of a day that was, but I made the most of it and headed home only to return the next day. I had quite the shock; Spring Bonnie and Fredbear appeared livelier and more active. They had a glint in their eyes that sparkled. I would even swear that I saw them blink a few times. Henry approached me, with a full smile on his face. "Told you it would be a matter of time, but the kids now can't have enough of the two!"

I smiled back. Well, I could not deny it: whatever happened proved to be beneficial for the diner. However, Mr. Afton noticeably stayed longer in his office hardly ever leaving to discuss any recent developments with any of our staff. The few times he had temporarily left his office, I noticed that his skin became progressively paler almost matching his business suit's coloration. He was becoming more of a walking corpse each passing day then when I first became employed at the diner. But I did initially shake that observation out of my mind instead attributing that to disease. Mr. Afton was a sickly man, after all. It maybe could be easily explained away that he was most likely suffering some type of illness, perhaps of a hereditary variety.

Business was booming at a greater rate than ever before. Birthday parties were being held at the diner. Reservations were filled. Everything was going well. At least until one day that is. On one of our less busy days, Henry took me to the side. He was sterner and more serious than usual. "What is it sir?" I asked in genuine curiosity. I almost sensed the dread in his voice. Was it that I was going to be laid off now? I have been representing the establishment for about two months now.

"My son is coming to have a birthday party tomorrow."

"Oh, a birthday party for your son?" Henry did often mention in passing to having a daughter. This was probably the first time I have heard him having a son. But it made sense with what he said next.

"My boy…is greatly terrified of the animatronics. It is a rather odd dilemma. He used to really love the animatronics at least until his older brother started to terrorize him by dressing up as one from one of our owned pizzeria chains. Humorously, he keeps his plush animals around. As you can probably tell, he is greatly important to me hence why I keep him under surveillance numerously. Sometimes at the diner. Sometimes at home by installing a tracking device inside of his stuffed Fredbear doll."

That was unsettling, but I could easily tell that he was fiercely devoted to his son. So, I listened tentatively to what he was saying. I was to keep watch over his son while his party was underway. Pretty simple I first thought. On that day, I sat to the side watching the young boy. He and his sister and mother sat far away to the near back of the diner away from the prying eyes of the animatronics. It pained me seeing a young child like that be so frightful of the two-animatronics stationed in the diner, but he slowly began to enjoy himself in other ways.

But with anything what started off as harmless fun devolved into urgency and mass hysteria. When the boy's mother slipped from her seat to go to the restroom, the boy's brother arrived at the diner wearing a Foxy mask along with his hooligan friends. The boy's fears started to kick in with his breathing becoming more frantic. I called out to the boys demanding that they cease their behavior, but I was met with only the mocking laughing of the boy's brother and friends. They scooped the crying child into their grubby hands and walked in the direction of Fredbear. The boy's screaming rung through the diner. I nearly could not listen to it with it being that pained and frantic.

"Why not give Fredbear a big kiss?" the brother asked.

Despite his younger brother's protests, the brother placed his head into Fredbear's open maw. Fredbear's maw moved in an up and down fashion, sluggishly moving. They all laughed at the boy's utter humiliation and fear.

Crunch.

The laughter stopped as quickly as it began. The boy suddenly became limp and lifeless. Blood trickling down Fredbear's furry cheeks. Upon closer inspection, the force exerted by the animatronics' jaws caved in the boy's skull. Blood was everywhere. I never heard so fierce a scream ever and I hope to whatever ethereal being that was out there in the cosmos that I never would again.

I scrambled to get to the diner's work phone and dialed 911. "Yes, we have an emergency on our hands. Our address?"

Henry was in an obviously distraught mood with the whole thing. He was greatly devastated by the freak accident. He reacted harshly to his older son dismissive of him trying to apologize. Even when he was being taken away to be interrogated. He was a broken man in all but his sanity. Mr. Afton was in his office again, per usual, but he left it upon hearing all the commotion. He approached Henry with curiosity. When he was given the rundown on what happened, Mr. Afton tapped his shoulders. His skin was becoming purple, as if it were decomposing. His eyes were stretched wide.

"Do not worry, old friend, we will put him back together."

The hell kind of ominous statement was that? Henry looked Mr. Afton over suspiciously and alarmed at what he was saying. Without needing to say anything more, Henry pried his hand off his shoulder. Afton shrugged his shoulders and headed towards the backroom to resume whatever he was doing. The diner shut down for a good week or so until the disappearances resumed.

Everything was picking up for the diner. Much of that had to go with how well-received Spring Bonnie and Fredbear were. As I have said, they were once devoid of much expression and personality, but through whatever means, business was flourishing. At least until that incident involving Henry's son. It felt like a fever dream with how rapid it was in its action. Since then, Henry acted more embittered. He kept up the image of being affable, but he nevertheless became colder to me and the staff. But Afton's insistence that he would help put Henry's son "back together" still lingered in my mind. His son was in critical care; how could Mr. Afton even begin to believe that he could put his friend's son back together as if he were a broken vase.

But ever since that 8-year-old boy went missing, seemingly disappearing in thin air, more children around the diner began to fade into the shadows. A young girl with green eyes and blonde hair was last reported mourning her deceased puppy dog. Around that time, the Spring Bonnie animatronic was mysteriously missing. I remember Mr. Afton detailing the exact specific functions of the Spring Bonnie animatronic saying that it was specifically designed to be worn by an employee; he called it a springlock suit. The suit itself was called such because of its springs and wiring that could be…well, for lack of a better word, locked away. But he warned me that if any moisture got into it…he represented the situation by balling a scrap of paper between his hands. Accidentally touching the springs or breathing on them also proved to have deadly consequences. Why in good faith would Mr. Afton even think that it was a good idea? It was a lawsuit waiting to happen. Oy, this company.

But more bizarre than that was how Mr. Afton began to ramble odd remarks about…gods? If he were a religious man, that would be fine, but he would keep talking about odd anomalies and how at one time, they ruled over the world long before mankind took its first few baby steps. He spoke openly bout his dedication to the gods and how they were the ones behind the success of the franchise. His skin no longer resembled any recognizable skin tone. He became akin to a shriveled grape in the sun. His eyes were so sunken in now, all I could make most of was a thin shade of darkness where the whiteness in his eyes should have been. My staff members were most assuredly disturbed by Mr. Afton's slow transformation, but he did sense it in the back of his mind. He now spent most of his time either alone in his office or in the backroom only emerging towards closing time. One day when I was about to punch out and call it a night, Mr. Afton took me by the side and smiled at me. Even his gums were purple.

"I do not know the time of day or the hour, but the gods will return to reclaim this world. I may be dead by that point, but I hope that you will survive to see their return. Yog-Sothoth will open the gates wide and the gods will terry the lands as they have done long before."

Years later, I still saw Mr. Afton's words as being the breaking point for me. Thinking back on it, Mr. Afton was never sane to begin with. He was blessed with the technological know-how, but he had odd manners about himself almost as if he were stark mad. He became obsessed with the aspect of opening the Gate to usher the gods of old back into our plane of existence. Once they arrived, the powers within this planet would be reverted to them, and Yog-Sothoth would drag this rock into the void between worlds where he rules. Outside of time and space itself; outside of the organized world into realms of madness and disorder. Into a realm of decaying, dead planets and faceless gods.

Within the first week of the month, four more children vanished under mysterious circumstances. With every single instance, the Spring Bonnie suit was absent, suspicions falling on the employees that they were deliberately spiriting the animatronic suit away to use it for nefarious purposes. As the weeks went by, adults lost hope of the original missing children ever being found. An employee was charged for the murders and was sentenced to be executed. Word spread that he was being set up but by whom none could tell or let alone agree.

Another month passed with the adults and parents giving up on the missing children and accepting that the employee who was accused of the crime was the best they could attain to closure. Spring Bonnie and Fredbear continued to rake in patrons sometimes getting booked for personal reservations. With more money in their pockets, so to speak, more animatronics were gradually introduced to other locations but also fell under the same dilemma resonating with the diner formerly: the animatronics were lifeless. Granted, they were robots so that could be kind of the point. But lifeless in that they were not entertaining. Henry at that time did not take much concern about the other locations due to mourning the loss of his son. That responsibility squarely fell under Mr. Afton. Whenever he left his office, he wore a trench coat to hide his body coloration. He would tend to be gone for days at a time, but once he was done visiting, the animatronics also took on a life of their own and were on the receiving end of a warm reception. The Spring Bonnie suit also followed Afton throughout the different locations.

Henry and I grew closer to each other due to Afton's abrupt leaves. He entrusted me with spieling out his frustrations and sorrows and appreciated me as a confidant. I would give my concerns about how Mr. Afton conducted his business and placed it at his feet. Each time, Henry felt the need to explain his co-owner's oddness away in the most trivial of ways. Afton's devotion to the gods of old became increasingly problematic and impeded on his side of the business scheme. Yet he kept insisting that the gates will be opened. Sometimes he looked at me almost as if hoping that I would be the one to open the gates.

Henry's older son was still away somewhere in a juvenile correctional facility. His surviving daughter was named Charlotte. I had seen her about once or twice. She was the near image of childhood innocence. She treated other kids respectably and was always there to lift their spirits or be the one who would offer their shoulder to lean on. Charlotte was Henry's pride and joy. Which was why I found what happened to her leagues worse than what befell his son.

Business began as usual with me taking orders and keeping watch on Fredbear. Without warning, Henry erupted from his office frantically causing the documents in his hands to fall onto the floor in a heap. I tried to intervene and ask him what had happened, but all he could reply was "Charlie, my daughter…"

Charlie was found dead at one of the pizzerias. From whatever explanation that was readily available, forensics speculated that she was sick from a stomachache and for whatever reason opted to run out of the pizzeria. By the time that happened, an assailant attacked her leaving her in a pool of her own blood. It was raining heavily at the time and some of the blood was already disappearing from the scene. When some of the employees noticed that Charlie was absent from an arranged party, to their shock, they found their surveillance animatronic, nicknamed "The Puppet" by the side of the deceased girl. From their research, they found a green bracelet on the corpse's wrist that was meant to be a signal for the Puppet to indicate that one of the children were not in the pizzeria. Strangely enough, Charlie's blood trickled into a puddle with the rainwater and it met up with the animatronic. The Puppet was returned to the backroom under the shared fear that it had malfunctioned. Purple streaks were underneath the Puppet's eyes. As if it too were weeping.

Henry's controlling over the situation worsened. He could not think rationally nor critically. His demeanor changed ultimately with him being dismissive with me and the other employees. He could no longer be trusted with dealing with the diner's finances. Even just thinking about it was enough to push him into one of his winded tangents about the unfairness of life. Mr. Afton remained behind locked doors during Henry's mindless dribbles, but he had what I at best could call a demented sense of intrigue at what happened to Charlie. Instead of consoling Henry over his loss, Mr. Afton instead asked questions about the murder and continued to speak on his occultist obsession. It was incredibly distasteful, but I could sense that Afton did at least have a small iota of sympathy for his co-owner's plight. Maybe to the furthest extent I could give him some leniency was perhaps he was not as monstrous as I imagined him to be. He leaned into Henry's ear and whispered something. I had not the faintest idea what he could have possibly been saying, but Henry's eyes lit up. It must have been something about Charlie because his color returned to his skin and the glint returned.

"Just follow me," Afton said.

Without speaking another word, Henry followed his old friend. They walked past his office which was lit again with the light of those glowing orbs. I quietly followed the two men whilst they were none the wiser, and I stopped when they approached the double doors of the backroom. I darted around the corner and remained there until I heard the doors slam shut.

They were gone for a deathly long time. I had waited for at least two minutes for either two to come out, but it was a fruitless decision. I returned to my station and took more orders. When I got finished with that, my eyes floated over to Spring Bonnie and Fredbear again. They still looked lively as usual. While it came off as less of a surprise, I did notice a few quirks that the animatronics had. They were singing their typical substandard tunes that the children ate up, but the adults reviled as earworms.

An hour passed when the two men were gone, but I heard the doors open again. A floored Henry emerged from the backroom the color in his skin tone diminishing. He was white as a ghost. He rubbed his eyes in a maddened haze when the smallest light entered them and became near intelligible from whatever Mr. Afton had shown him. He stammered slurred words and grasped his head between his hands. "Souls…remnant…blackness."

I ran towards him out of concern. Whatever he had seen had made him into such a psychological mess he barely had any memory of me and his surroundings. He was speaking what amount to anti-intellectual dribble.

"A mist of darkness swirling and writhing in every which direction. Ropes of tentacles made of ink on top of a drove of primeval legs each innumerable and infinite. Some being that is centuries old undoubtedly older than our known universe. Mouths on every orifice of the creature's abominable form. Rows upon rows of mouths with hideous monstrosities leaping out of the open maws in a maddening frenzy scurrying away from their 'mother" in fear of getting devoured. Green slime raining down from the open maws, And oh my god, that goat head…."

Mr. Afton clasped Henry's shoulder. "You have beheld our source of revenue. One of those elder gods who I have summoned to Earth. I serve her with every fiber of my being. Do you not see that without her we would be no better than the worms beneath our feet?"

Henry swatted his hand away, "I…need some time to myself."

Mr. Afton frowned, but with what little remained of his lips it came off as artificially contrived. "Take all the time you need, old friend. The time is on the essence."

He turned away from the madman and momentarily looked at me. I was going to respond, but he immediately turned again and exited through the front door. The time he dedicated to himself evolved into minutes, to hours. To days. To months and finally a whole year.

He never returned to the diner.

With Henry's departure, business began to plummet. Without his hand over management of the finances, Fredbear's floundered in reviews with not even the liveliness of Fredbear and Spring Bonnie doing much to turn heads. Henry never went to any of the branches in Fazbear Entertainment. The last I have heard about him; he was still ranting wildly about whatever Mr. Afton had in the backroom. None knew what was behind there for Mr. Afton made even staring at the double doors prohibited. In the backroom of the diner, there came rustling and chillingly low growls. They resembled no such animal on this Earth. They were the sound of freight trains all going in the same direction and forming a massive collision.

Everywhere that Mr. Afton went came the utmost disturbing of news of children going missing in the different sections of the franchise. The Spring Bonnie suit was permanently retired due to Mr. Afton's insistence of using it for personal projects. Mr. Afton no longer resembled a human but an emaciated skeleton whose very bones were a darker shade of purple still. The very fact that he was still able to move around despite there being little fat on his body was a miracle. Or should I call it a curse?

At Freddy Fazbear's Pizza for instance, there was a case of five missing children consisting of three boys and two girls. It was another one of those booked reservations for a birthday party that was being thrown late in the afternoon. Witnesses claim that they were seen going into the backroom being led away from the other screaming children and bustling parents by one of the golden animatronics. What happened next was sketchy: they just…faded away seemingly in thin air. No bodies were ever found. No one noticed that the kids were missing until about four hours later. Mr. Afton was there – wearing his trench coat yet again – looking suspicious as always. He aided the search party anyway he could even placate younger children by voluntarily giving them tickets so they could play in the arcade or giving them pizza slices free of charge. There was never so much protesting from moral guardians before in the history of Fazbear Entertainment and there never would be again. Parents held other parents as being to blame for the Missing Children Incident if it benefitted them regardless of their allegations being factually sound or not. The grand witch hunt led to the families incriminating a security guard as being the guilty party. They ignored his attempts at trying to reason with them and was arrested. Mr. Afton stood by and with what little remained of his mouth, he made a short whistle.

As there were no bodies found at the scene of the crime, the security guard was found guilty of the five children's disappearances and sentenced to five life sentences. To this day, he still insists that not only was he innocent of all charges, but due to the prejudices that were thrown his way, the moral guardians failed to catch the real killer when they had the chance.

Sometime after the whole ordeal, something peculiar befell the animatronics. They began to reek afoul some attributing the scent to unveiling of an ancient crypt. Blood and mucus secreted through the eyes, nose, and mouths of the animatronics. Due to the mass disappearances of children at the pizzerias, surveillance technology was added to the animatronics, here called "Toy Animatronics." They were supposed to be linked to a criminal interface and were "revamped" versions of the original four of Freddy, Foxy, Chica, and Bonnie. There were also the additions of that wretched Balloon Boy and the upper executives remodeled the Puppet they had from the other pizzeria perhaps convinced they could revamp it as well. But they warned that one had to continually wind its music box to keep it at bay. I do not know what it would entail if someone neglected to do so, but I assume whatever is the result, it is not pretty.

Fredbear's Family Diner's days eventually came to a slow, excruciating end. There were massive layoffs and Fredbear was decommissioned and sent to be hollowed out for scrap metal. I could have sworn that I saw Fredbear's eyes move about in a frantic pace and his movements stiffened. It was disheartening to watch. Mr. Afton remained in his office for a long duration of time not interacting with any of his staff or employees. I was the last one left and as I gathered my things, Mr. Afton called out to me again.

"Do you mind staying a little longer?"

"Yes sir, what do you expect from me?" I responded.

"I'm sure you are dying to know what was behind these backdoors," Mr. Afton explained, "since your services are no longer needed here, I feel that now is the appropriate time to reveal my inspiration."

I shrugged my arms. Mr. Afton was becoming more unnerving by the second, but since I had nothing at the time to lose, I decided to humor him this one time. After all, I may as well not be expecting to see him again. He held out a bony finger and flicked it. "Just follow me."

I followed the deranged man like he asked of me and we both disappeared behind the back. I have seen just about everything this franchise had to offer, but I could not mentally prepare myself for what I was about to see.

We made it to the double doors and Mr. Afton held the knob sternly in his hand, fondling it even. "Behold my muse."

He…opened the door. It was like what Henry had mentioned. There in the back was a large creature of indiscernible design. The creature was of a larger scope that my brain began to short circuit from my desperation at trying to comprehend what I was seeing. A swirling mist of darkness and tentacles all on top of goat legs. Smaller creatures leapt out of the maws of the monster and acted abrasively towards each other. A dark paste-like subject was leaking from underneath the dark being that was being gathered through an irrigation system. Tubes and wires led towards a vault where the dark matter was pumped.

"What? What is all this?"

Mr. Afton smiled again. "As you can see, I have been in quite the desperate debacle with trying to keep revenue flowing to the diner. After trying the more legal means of doing so, I became desperate. Henry and I were. So, I did further research and ultimately, I found the answer to my dilemmas. Shub-Niggurath."

Green slime dripped from the many mouths of the Black Goat of the Woods. A hideous creature with even more abominable offspring, Shub-Niggurath a fertility goddess of sorts that was worshiped by many cults. But why…why is Shub-Niggurath in our diner rather than anywhere else? But what caught my eyes was the dark substance being collected into large vaults.

"That my dear boy," Mr. Afton said in a sing-song tune, "is what I call remnant."

Remnant I thought. It was an odd term for whatever…this was. My mind was still trying to wrap around as to why Mr. Afton summoned an Outer God to our plane of existence. "That is what I had been injecting into the animatronics to give them life," he explained.

"How did you do that?" I asked though I plainly did not wish to know. As I finished my thought, I saw something to the side of the room in a small heap. I ran over to it to get a closer look. My mouth was agape with horror. It was clothes of varying sizes discarded with nonchalance. My mind began to comprehend what it all meant, but Mr. Afton gave me the answer anyway.

"It is simple, my boy; children are sacrificed to satiate my goddess' hunger and once that is done, I pillage through the remains of secretion and from there, I harvest remnant. Remnant at its simplest and purest of form are condensed souls of the children."

I wanted to vomit in repulsion, but none came out. What a despicable endeavor. But it explained why Spring Bonnie and Fredbear felt so alive. They were with the melted down souls of any unfortunate child that was lured away and sacrificed. I believe that they were in deep pain and writhing with every wave of pain. My heart went out to those children lost.

"You psycho, how could you kill all these children!?"

Mr. Afton laughed. "They are not truly gone; they live on in various forms some within Shub-Niggurath herself or as the animatronics they love. I am sure you had some favorite character once, correct? Well, I am also positive that you wanted to be them in some way?"

My hands shook. "What of Charlie? Was she also apart of your sick experiments?"

"That one I admit had no real purpose behind it," Mr. Afton confessed, "it was more a happy accident."

He crossed his arms. "If my foolish friend allowed me, I would have put his precious boy back together again. You know that I have the means and resources to do so. Ah, such a tragedy that was."

I had enough of Mr. Afton's callousness I went to turn around, but he grabbed my arm. "Wait, please hear me out before you do anything rash."

"I am done listening to you."

"My time is not promised," Mr. Afton said bluntly, "I have tried to use remnant to make myself immortal, but it had bleached my skin and is poisoning my bloodstream. Please devote the rest of your days to serving my goddess."

I grabbed his hand with my other hand and pried him off. "You have tampered with something unearthly and grave. You can go sleep with the worms for all I care."

Mr. Afton sighed. "Then we have no other reason to speak. I hate it very much."

He made another grab for me and caught me by the collar. There I was being dragged towards one of the many maws of the Black Goat of the Woods. Mr. Afton muttered something beneath his breath maybe some slurred praise to the Outer God. With her acidic breath coming ever closer, I had to think fast. I leaned forward and bit down on Mr. Afton's wrist. He hissed in pain and covered his hand with his other to ease the pain. I scurried to get back up and I punched him squarely in the face. He fell to the ground with a thud. Before he could say anymore, one of Shub-Niggurath's tentacles darted out and grabbed his leg.

"My goddess, wait, do not do this to your faithful servant!"

Mr. Afton was being dragged into the goddess' open mouth and her young took interest in what was happening and came down on Mr. Afton clawing and scratching his face. I was frozen in fear but if I did not leave, Shub-Niggurath would direct her attention towards me. I ran as fast as my legs could take me down the hall ignoring Mr. Afton's screams asking for assistance. My legs were giving out quickly, but I fought for my life.

The foundations of the diner were crumbling from the rapid movement of Shub-Niggurath. By the time I escaped, the ceiling caved in and collapsed in on the walls. When the dust was settled, Fredbear's Family Diner was nothing more than a pile of rubble. Afton and his goddess were buried deep in the debris. I had survived, but at what cost for I was the only one aside from Henry who knew what Afton was really doing.

I tried going about living my daily life, but I am still bothered by Afton's horrific experiments and his attempts of trying to usher in beings potentially worse in their scale from what Shub-Niggurath could attest to. But whatever was out there in the cosmos, I was relieved that at least the apocalypse was averted. But for how long?


	2. Spoiled Rotten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is not a continuation of the previous story on Shub-Niggurath but rather another one-shot AU.

"This is Channel 5 News coming at you live about the recent surge of child disappearances."

The Afton family were gathered around the table eating breakfast. Mrs. Afton was cooking flapjacks and slid the golden-brown delicacies on the waiting plates on the table. William Afton was sitting at the head of the table, a newspaper in his hands. Michael and his younger sister Elizabeth sat on opposite sides of the table. They listened tentatively to the news announcer.

"Eight-year-old Riley Scott was last sighted at one of the pizzerias by the time of his disappearance. The pizzeria, which is a branch owned by the notorious Fazbear Entertainment franchise. The pizzeria is currently under heavy investigation."

William stood up from his side of the table and went into the living room. Grabbing the remote control, William flipped the television off and stood there motionless for what felt like hours.

"Are they still investigating that nightguard, honey?" Mrs. Afton asked.

"Hell knows," William responded bluntly.

Mrs. Afton crossed her arms in dissatisfaction. "Dear! Keep your swearing at a minimum. Elizabeth's sitting at the table."

William looked at his young daughter with visible remorse plastered on his face. "Sorry, princess. Next time cover your ears when your Daddy gets mad."

Elizabeth, with a forkful of cut, buttery flapjacks, shook her head before shoving the chunk of food into her mouth and biting down on it. Michael could not help but to roll his eyes in annoyance. His father always became putty in his little sister's hands. She was the apple of his eye that he would shower with countless gift after gift. It was sickening how much control little Elizabeth had over their father and how oftentimes William would seemingly neglect that he was his elder son.

"That makes about six missing children in the last month, doesn't it?" Mrs. Afton pointed out.

"Yes, dear," William said. "The nightguard was already being charged with at least five of the disappearances of those children; word is he could be expecting life in prison along with five additional sentences."

"And the bodies were never found?" Mrs. Afton noted.

"If they found the bodies, would you not think that it would take the investigation that long?" William asked.

"No…I guess not."

Michael cringed when he heard this. Ever since the first child went missing, Elizabeth expressed nothing but sheer curiosity for the tragedies. Despite her seeming to be nothing more but a bubbly, energetic girl, underneath her façade belied a troubling, emotionally bankrupt young lady. For a girl her age, Elizabeth expressed a morbid sense of curiosity with their father's mechanical creations, of particular note, he could still remember how she was once playing with a 5-year-old and for whatever reason, she thought of it as being an appropriate time to tell the young boy about the secret backrooms behind the pizzerias.

"I have heard that children go missing in the backroom; they snatch children like me or you up and stuff them into the animatronics!"

The boy, obviously so, wept out of sheer fright. When the boy's mother heard the commotion, she scooped her precious child into her arms and gave Elizabeth a cold glare. 

"You mustn't make my little baby boy scared like that!"

Elizabeth looked at her not blinking…something that Elizabeth was prone to doing that could very well last for a few minutes give and take…and forced out a restrained apology to the mother for worrying her son like that. Curiously, when the mother returned about a week later to the pizzeria with her son to attend a birthday party, she temporarily placed him in a booster seat so she could take a leave for the girls' restroom to powder her nose. When she returned, her son was missing, seemingly disappearing in thin air.

There was a large search party organized that sadly meant that the poor schmuck's birthday was ruined. William and the employees of the pizzeria were a part of the search party and one stood by the door discouraging adults from entering the facility whilst the investigation was thoroughly underway. Michael and Mrs. Afton were also alerted to the sudden disappearance; Michael's mother asked for him to keep an eye on his sister.

"Elizabeth, Mom said for me to watch you," Michael said.

He received no response from his sister. He called out her name again, but she was nowhere in the establishment. Michael dashed towards the kid's section, but still there was no sign of her anywhere. His breathing began to get stressed. "Damn it, Elizabeth, why do you have to disappear right when there is a missing child report?"

Michael rubbed his temples. "Think…think…where would Elizabeth be?"

He thought harder on it and snapped his fingers. "Of course…why did I not think of that any sooner?"

He traversed to the mystic backrooms of the pizzeria, and without much surprise, little Elizabeth was leaving the backrooms. She had a look of ecstasy on her face as if whatever it was that was back there thrilled her. Michael grabbed her by the arm and brought her up to his face. "Were you playing with the springlock suits again?"

Elizabeth's smile disappeared. "No."

Michael rolled his eyes at his sister's poor attempt at lying. Yet somehow, William and his mother were always deceived by her lies. It did somewhat help that with Elizabeth's size and emerald eyes and light orange hair were the main aspects factoring into her playing up her cutie act. Michael could not help but to slightly upchuck from thinking about how idiotic it was.

"Look, squirt, Father had made it plainly clear that those springlock suits are dangerous."

He bent his knee further making the ominous warning self-evident. "It is called such because the slings and animatronic parts are locked away. If you even slightly touch them, let alone breathe on them, all those mechanical parts would become dislodged. The springs will rip into your tender flesh. Then the rest of the parts will tear into you. That last poor sap of ours almost lost his life when he accidentally blew on the locks."

Elizabeth shook her head. Michael squinted his eyes still convinced that his sister did not know the full extent of just how grievous the circumstances were. On the plus side, she was unharmed, so Michael allowed whatever suspicions he had diminish. "Good; let's head back to the front, alright?"

The search droned on towards the end of the day, and there were some rumblings of maybe extending the search party to the beginning of the next day. The 5-year-old boy was added to the alarming list of missing children. The pizzeria was overwhelmed in a sea of controversy that also extended to the other branches of Fazbear Entertainment. William was becoming more of a mess the more the endless waves of complaints being lauded at his feet. Michael noticed his father's more frantic actions. Especially when he introduced his latest creation to his interviewers. He was walking past the backrooms one day when he heard the thick, British accent of his father along with the board members.

"There's no doubting what you've achieved on a technical level. These are clearly state-of-the-art. There are just certain design choices that were made for these robots that we don't fully understand. We were hoping that you could shed some light on those."

The interviewer was without a doubt disturbed by whatever addition his father had given to his newest creation. Then his father spoke, but it felt as though he were reading off a script he pre-wrote in preparation for the review.

"She can dance, she can sing! She's equipped with a built-in helium tank for inflating balloons right at her fingertips. She can take song requests. She can even dispense ice-cream."

It did little to reassure the board member about what he was seeing. "With all due respect, those aren't the design choices we were curious about, Mr. Afton."

It was a bizarre, feverish dream-like occurrence. William was without question a technological genius who, with the help of an old friend of his, saved the franchise from its near financial collapse. His newest models were the Funtime Animatronics. They were at best an updated version of the animatronics from their neighboring pizzeria with more advanced high-tech robotics, but no noticeable security interface. William had already made replicas of at most three of the lead animatronics from the other pizzeria, but they also introduced two humanoid animatronics. One was a tall, oddly curvy ballerina, and the one that Afton was introducing to his clients was a jester of sorts to further emphasize the circus themes.

"Alright, so we see that you are not willing to disclose what this…odd contraption is…in this one. But it seems like it serves a purpose overall. We wish you the best of luck, Mr. Afton, with your vision."

There came a small commotion with the board members shaking hands with William and making their way for the entrance. Michael immediately scurried away to keep from getting found out. Not too long after the meeting, William ordered Michael to send for his mother and Elizabeth. Begrudgingly, Michael did as he was told and the two were brought behind the back each having a polarizing opinion with William's latest invention.

"Family, I'd like to introduce you to the latest member of the Funtime band, Circus Baby."

Mrs. Afton placed her hands in front of her mouth, her bubbling dread betraying her. Elizabeth, on the other hand, was mesmerized by the jovial animatronic before her.

"Well…what do you all think about her?" William asked a little firmer than before. He did not say it, but he knew that at the least his wife was unsettled by it.

"It's…pretty big." Mrs. Afton was finally able to say.

"Seven feet to be exact," William said.

Mrs. Afton took a closer look at the animatronic. "Wait, she isn't…"

"That's right!" William said triumphantly. "Circus Baby is modeled after my little princess."

Elizabeth jumped up and down with excitement. "I LOVE IT, DADDY!" She walked over to Circus Baby and sprinted around it. "CAN I PLAY WITH HER? CAN I PLAY WITH HER? CAN I PLAY WITH HER!?"

William chuckled at his daughter, satisfied that she was happy with his masterpiece. "I hate to make you upset, but I'm afraid you can't play with her."

Elizabeth stopped in her tracks. "Why not?"

William Afton pointed to the springlock suits then back at Circus Baby. "I'm afraid that she is too dangerous for you to be left alone with her."

Elizabeth stomped her foot. "You made it for me, Daddy."

"Yes, I have; but this is an animatronic that is too dangerous if left to its own devices."

Elizabeth huffed. "Okay, Daddy…"

William turned to Michael, but his warm smile disappeared. "Well, what say you?"

Michael shrugged. "It's okay, I guess."

William scowled at his son, but he decided to let that tone he had pass. Truthfully, Michael did not like Circus Baby at all. While it was one thing for his father to unconditionally love Elizabeth, modeling an animatronic in her likeness was taking it past the point of mere care. But at the same time, Michael felt envious of his sister. Obviously so because William thought it be important enough to create an animatronic clown in her likeness. Apparently, Michael himself was not good enough to be given that luxury.

"If things go according to plan," William continued, "Circus Baby will be as famous as the likes of Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie."

"Dear, I am curious," Mrs. Afton began, "what is that part for?"

William smiled. "Ah, yes: this adorable thing can dispense ice cream." He pointed at her fingers next. "She can even inflate balloons with her fingertips."

Mrs. Afton nodded. "Really state of the art high-tech there."

William went to say something in response to his wife's insights only to nearly bend over backward when he saw Elizabeth extending her hand to touch Circus Baby's fingers. "I warned you to not touch her!"

He swatted her hand away. Elizabeth grabbed her stinging hand with her other hand, and tears were beginning to welt in her eyes. William looked down at his hand for a moment out of remorse. "I'm sorry, princess; I just want you to stay safe."

Elizabeth shook her head as an indication that she understood what he was saying. From that day forward, the news about the seven missing children slowly started to die down. All the children had one thing in common: they all visited the pizzeria the day of their disappearance, and they vanished without as much of a trait. Even when the children were being meticulously watched by their parents and guardians. 

With each disappearance, Elizabeth became more and more enthralled with the vanishings and even went as far as to drill the investigators on whether their bodies were ever found or anything of morbid note.

It would all barrel out one day when Michael made the unfortunate decision to go to her room. It was cleaning time which was an occasion that the Afton family could collectively agree on that it was awful and time-consuming. Each Afton family member was tasked with a room to clean. William had to clean out his workstation; Mrs. Afton would tend to the clothes in the laundry room; Elizabeth had the living room; and Michael had to clean out the bedrooms. He groaned at the tediousness of the task.

He began with his room before slowly working his way up to his parents' shared bedroom. After that, Michael stopped at his sister's door. For whatever reason, there was a building dread about the room. The air was thick, so much so, one could slice it with a knife. Michael shook his suspicions aside and opened the door. Producing his broom, Michael started to sweep around his sister's room. Littered on the floor were the broken-down pieces of toys inspired by the Fazbear franchise. His sister must have loved the franchise almost as much as their father did.

He gathered the pieces of the toys together with the broom into a pile. Going back to sweep more debris onto the building mound, Michael noticed a loose sheet of paper protruding from underneath Elizabeth's bed. "What the?"

He turned the broom on its side and slipped it under the sheets to rake it out. It was something thick. With more force, Michael withdrew a pink book. "What is this?"

His sister's diary, he thought. Sure, one side of him ruled that he shouldn't pry it open and read its contents, but it was also too juicy to let it pass by. He looked around just a few times to ensure that he was still alone. With that, he started to read. The pages began rather mundane, just things that girls Elizabeth's age would talk about. The more he read, the more he grew bored. Remembering the scrap of paper, he found, he realized that he never got to see what it was. With the photo beside him, he flipped it over and his eyes widened. His mouth opened a few times with no words coming out of it.

It was that 5-year-old boy that had been reported missing for about two weeks.

Why? Why did Elizabeth have a picture of the boy under her bed? Whilst submerged in an ocean of thoughts, Michael found himself flipping through the pages seeing that more pictures of the missing children were glued on the pages. They were all snippets of newspaper clippings with short details of each child.

Melissa, age 7. Was last seen at the local pizzeria. Is presumed dead.

Harvey, age 4. Came to Freddy's Pizza with his caretakers. He disappeared when his caretakers momentarily took their eyes off them. He is presumed dead.

Adrian, age 9. Was last seen at the pizzeria.

More and more descriptions of the children were glued to the diary's pages. Michael tried to stave off the urge to vomit to no avail. How? How is Elizabeth getting away with this? Did it mean that she? No…no, that could not be the case. While Elizabeth was emotionally bankrupt and loved the morbid and the macabre, she could not have been the one responsible for these disappearances. Could she?

Stomp. Stomp.

Michael was ruthlessly pitched out of his thoughts, his eyes becoming enlarged again. She was on her way to her bedroom. If she saw him with her diary, who knows what she would try to do? Without much thinking, Michael quickly stuffed the picture of the 5-year-old boy back into the diary and shoved it back under the bed. Elizabeth walked in the moment he did so. Though Lady Luck must've been on her side because Elizabeth seemed to not notice.

"Mom said that she would be getting dinner done soon," Elizabeth said.

"Oh…oh! Okay," Michael said in a nervous tone. "Anyway, I am all done with your room."

Elizabeth eyed him with her emerald green eyes as if tasting his fear. For what seemed like an eternity, Elizabeth broke her stare and walked away. Michael wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead in relief. "Good, she didn't catch my bluff."

The Aftons gathered around the table to eat dinner. Throughout it, Elizabeth made a few passing glances towards Michael. Michael could feel her heated stares but forced himself to continue eating whilst not looking at her as that would shatter the illusion.

"Michael, what's wrong?" Mrs. Afton asked. "You're acting strange."

"Oh, oh, it isn't anything too alarming, Mother," Michael said. He attempted to say it in confidence, but his words were faltering. He inhaled deeply afraid that his mother would catch on it. But miraculously, she turned her attention back to her plate and resumed eating undisturbed.

After dinner, Michael thought back to his discoveries. With every child disappearance, they were frequent visitors of the pizzeria. They all vanished without anyone's notice. But they could not have possibly walked out of the pizzeria either. At best, when they were taken, they were still in the establishment. It crossed his mind at how blissful his sister acted when that 5-year-old boy went missing. She was in the backroom when the search was underway. It had to be something about that backroom. He yawned and rolled to his side. He would investigate the first thing tomorrow.

Next day began as normally. William was in his office doing whatever a CEO would do, and Elizabeth was getting her hair combed and brushed by her mother. The doors to the pizzeria opened at their standard time, and droves of children raced in. They gathered around the Funtime Animatronics and were enjoying their festivities. With the coast clear, Michael slithered away and slowly walked towards the backroom. Grabbing a hold of the doorknob, Michael took one final look around to ensure that he was not being watched.

Remembering that the springlock suits were locked away in a closet, Michael made a mental note of getting a paperclip and he flattened it before inserting it into the slot. Grappling with it for a few minutes, Michael heard the door click and he pushed it aside. While Spring Bonnie and Fredbear were the only active models, William had made a few prototypes along with his business partner; about seven or eight in total. Michael went to the first one that was a haphazardly crafted grey wolf animatronic. It was old with its artificial fur already chaffing off and falling to the floor as thick clumps. The "lips" on the wolf eroded away revealing the first row of pointed teeth. The head of the wolf was tilting on its side likely from being disturbed.

Michael made a grab for the animatronic's head to correct the issue when he saw small tufts of brown hair poking from beneath the sides of the animatronic mask. Curiosity was clouding his judgment compelling Michael to lift the head up.

The brown hair belonged to a small boy.

Michael dropped the wolf head on the ground. It was not just the fact that a boy's body was lodged in the animatronic suit, but it was that 5-year-old boy that had went missing. The boy's body was deeply cut by the suit's springlocks and blood was overflowing inside of it. The hard plastic and metallic parts were heavily driven into the child's body. From what little Michael could see, the boy's death was no less excruciating.

Without even needing to think too long on it, he immediately went to another animatronic/springlock suit hybrid, this case being a frog. Once more, Michael uncovered another body. Again, and again, the animatronics were pried open to reveal their grisly contents. With each one, it became crystal clear to Michael what truly happened to the children: they were all lured to the backroom and shoved into the springlock suits and that because they did not realize how dangerous the suits were, they inadvertently tripped the springlocks and were goners at that very moment. Adding Elizabeth's macabre diary pages recording the disappearances, it was apparent what she had been doing all along.

"I…need to report the crimes to the authorities. I-I…"

A brunt object slammed against the back of Michael's skull sending him sprawling on the floor. In his blurred state, the last thing Michael saw was a smaller-sized person dropping whatever they hit him with on the floor with a loud thud before walking over and bending their knees to stare at him.

Michael jolted awake to see that his world had become darker. His vision was still subpar due to being hit that hard. He wanted to move, but he felt that his compartment was confined.

"Good morning, sleepyhead."

Michael's eyes widened. He knew that voice anywhere: it was coming from his young sister, Elizabeth. Before he could speak, Elizabeth spoke again. "Be careful not to move if you don't want to die."

With that, he realized that he was inside one of the spare springlock suits. He wanted to scream, but merely breathing in the suit was enough to shift the animatronic pieces back into place and Michael would suffer the same fate as those seven children if he wasn't careful. Sweat was beginning to trickle from his forehead as small beads. He tipped his head as far as he could take it, fretting that the sweat beads would fall and hit one of the springlocks.

"So, it was you," Michael choked out.

Elizabeth nodded. "Daddy always told me about these suits, but because they were never to be used; I wanted to see how they worked."

"Luring children into getting inside of the suits was wrong," Michael said, "why would you do this?"

"It was a game that I came up with one day," Elizabeth stated bluntly. That was it; no grandiose reason as to why she was doing this to children younger than her aside from it seeming to be a good idea at the time.

"Elizabeth! If you let anything happen to me, Mom and Dad will find out."

Elizabeth was now walking away from the springlock suit. "Circus Baby is going to make her first performance today; I don't want to miss it."

"No, no, no, no! Elizabeth get back here this instant!"

He heard the door slam shut behind him. Left to his own devices, Michael knew that if he were to remain in the suit any longer, the old springs would get out of position and crush him along with the remainder of the animatronic. Slowly he picked himself up whilst being mindful that he didn't accidentally fall. He inched upward and got on his feet. His sweat was still trickling. Now that he was in a standing position, Michael took a deep breath without exhaling and slipped the animatronic mask off him. He then rolled the sleeves of the suit down still tentatively keeping a check on the springlocks. Once he got the suit around his ankles, Michael slipped on the blood that was spilling from one of the used springlock suits. The springs around the ankles immediately droned to life and drilled into his left ankle.

"GAH!"

The animatronic parts kicked in next and were slicing their way clean through his foot. Michael grit his teeth against the pain and clasped his upper leg. Michael was feeling such immeasurable pain, he was on the verge of blacking out. He wrestled ceaselessly against the suit until he heard a gooey rip and he ripped what remained of his foot free from the springlock suit's grip. Blood was all over the floor now, but his struggling and anguished screams were enough to have Mrs. Afton, William, and Elizabeth race into the room.

"Yes, this is Channel 5 News coming to you with the report that the missing children have been uncovered. Investigators state that the son of the CEO of Afton Robotics, William Afton, had uncovered the bodies of the children. Each one had been found in what forensics are describing as an amalgamation of a suit and animatronic parts dubbed springlock suits. Parents are pressing charges on the pizzeria for their mismanagement, and a series of lawsuits are currently pending. More at 12."

Michael found himself slowly recovering at the hospital. His mother was always there by his side, but as for his father, he could hardly even as much as bother to check in on him. Rather, he was trying to quash all the complaints being filed against his company. On one day, Elizabeth was alone in her brother's hospital room with a smile full of mocking on her lips.

"Because of you, one of the employees got charged with the deaths," Michael said in tranquil fury.

"The authorities were all playing into my heads," Elizabeth said. "It must be sad that your foot is gone."

Michael couldn't believe how trivial his sister's words were. It just further established to him that she was more robotic than the actual animatronics in the pizzeria. "You won't get away with this, you know that?"

"They would never believe your word against a 10-year-old's, brother."

Michael shook his head. "I take it that Circus Baby's show went well?"

"It was a fun show, but I still want her all to myself."

Michael smirked. "You know when I was alone, she gave me chocolate ice cream."

Elizabeth's eyes widened in shock and envy. "She did!?"

Michael nodded. "And she gave me a balloon too. Though I get how you feel. Why are all these children getting to enjoy father's work while you have to sit by and watch from the background?"

Elizabeth thought about it and how greatly unfair it was. While she knew that her father did not want her anywhere near Circus Baby, Elizabeth snapped her knuckles. "No fair! He made it just for me!"

Michael smiled to himself. When Mrs. Afton arrived to pick up Elizabeth, Elizabeth wasted no time in returning to the backroom where the 7'2'' jester stood. For whatever nefarious purpose, Circus Baby always taking mental numbers of how many children were present in a room. Elizabeth stood before Circus Baby and was mesmerized by her once more. Without prompting, Circus Baby dispensed an ice cream cone before the smaller girl. Elizabeth smiled. "Finally! Gimme that!"

In a flash, Circus Baby's stomach cavity opened, and a grappling hook erupted from it. Before Elizabeth could fully comprehend what was happening, Circus Baby pulled the struggling girl inside of her and slammed the opening over her. Elizabeth's banging echoed out from Circus Baby's hollow body only for her last sights to be the trapped spirits of the children she had tricked.


End file.
